“Of one voice”- by Alyssa Serena

Coming to college with minimal connections to any Christians in Tuscaloosa, I knew I would need to make service a top priority (it’s the best way to meet the best people!). Though I had a love for singing and worshipping, I wanted to build connections with the ministries and people within the church before stepping onto the stage. I quickly grew to love my church, and my love for service followed suit. And that’s what worship is: a service, to the Lord and to the Church.

It can often be difficult for people to reconcile the performative elements of singing on a stage with the ‘humble servant’ nature of worship. From my perspective, however, we’re all doing the same thing: lifting our voices to God with a shout of praise. When we worship, we echo back to the Lord the glory of who He is, and that is a beautiful sound no matter the pitch of it! When I’m worshipping with the band, I know that my job is no more than providing a bit of guidance through the rhythm of the music and encouraging everyone to lift their voices to God with confidence. But how blessed are we that the Lord inhabits every praise we bring to Him! Even when my heart isn’t in the right place, when I’m way too focused on sounding good instead of proclaiming His goodness, He meets me where I am and molds my heart toward Him.

Through this past year, I have experienced the blessings of the Lord in worshipping each week with my church. I’ve attended church my entire life, but this year has shown me what it really means to be a ‘member’ of the church—it’s not merely sitting in on services and singing with the worship team. God calls us all to be members of one body, working with each other and serving each other and encouraging each other every single day. Serving in worship continually draws me closer to the Lord and to my community, as does serving in other areas of the church. I always love getting to partner with the body of Christ to reach the lost and encourage the found!